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SAWGRASS COUNTRY CLUBE GETS REAL-TIME WEATHER CONDITIONS AT THEIR COURSE THANKS TO WATCHDOG 3250!

Bill Schmit, golf course maintenance superintendent at Sawgrass Country Club in Florida, shares with Spectrum® Technologies his experiences using our measurement technology at his golf course.

What is the biggest challenge at your golf course?

Like most clubs, we are competing in a challenging labor market and trying to manage traffic while maintaining high quality conditions. While we do have some level of control over these factors, we cannot control the weather. The WatchDog 3250 weather station gives us real-time information and the ability to track and run reports on the weather. This has been very helpful for us.

How has our product helped improve your turf’s performance or your golf course’s operations?

Through the WatchDog app on our smartphones, we have information at our fingertips that has been a great help in our scheduling. We know what our conditions are and what to expect each day. Before leaving for the club each morning, I check the weather through the app. The app gives me information like rainfall, temperature and wind speed and lets us know what the day will bring. This information, along with a reasonably accurate weather forecast, arms us with the knowledge of how the day will shape up before it even begins.

What types of improvements or changes have you made to your golf course as a result of using the WatchDog® 3250?

The WatchDog 3250 weather station, along with the reports available through Spectrum® Technologies, has given us the ability to refine many things in our operation, the most important being irrigation scheduling. The WatchDog® weather station has integrated seamlessly with our Toro Lynx software. This allows us to irrigate based on evapotranspiration and gives us the ability to set alarm responses in the software that will turn irrigation on or off based on weather conditions or rainfall. This has led to significant water savings and helps us be better stewards of our resources. Additionally, the ability to track information like growing degree days and historical temperatures allows us to better schedule many of our chemical and fertilizer applications. In all, the accurate and timely weather information has contributed to many incremental changes that have made a noticeable difference in our operations and course conditions.

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FLYING HORSE NORTH GOLF CLUB MAKES BETTER IRRIGATION DECISIONS WITH WATCHDOG 3250 AND SPECCONNECT™!

Bill Schmit, golf course maintenance superintendent at Sawgrass Country Club in Florida, shares with Spectrum® Technologies his experiences using our measurement technology at his golf course.

What is the biggest challenge at your golf course?

The biggest challenge at Flying Horse North is all the different microclimates throughout the golf course. Half of the golf course is in heavily wooded terrain, then there are 5 holes in the wide-open prairie, and a few holes in moderately wooded terrain. The property is also very spread out so when rain moves through it is not unusual to have significantly different rain totals on different areas of the golf course..

How has our product helped improve your turf’s performance or your golf course’s operations?

The Spectrum® Technologies weather station with additional station pups in the field makes monitoring the weather data in different areas of the golf course much easier. There are currently 4 pups in the field, spread out on different areas of the property. Understanding the different microclimates on the property and using the data from the different pups helps us better understand what the needs of the turf are on different sections of the golf course. We might water more on prairie holes and less on holes in the trees where ET is lower and water loss from wind is less.

What types of improvements or changes have you made to your golf course as a result of using the WatchDog 3250?

The Spectrum Technologies weather station and pups allow us to make better decisions on how much irrigation to apply to different areas of the golf course. Using the information to improve water management makes for a better golf course. Another great feature is the SpecConnect Cloud Solution app, where I can view weather data from each pup right on my smartphone. If precipitation moves through after I am gone for the day, I can still see exactly what is going on and adjust the irrigation accordingly from home. This is my favorite feature of the Spectrum® Technologies weather station setup.

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RYAN KRAUSHOFER
SUPERINTENDENT - WESTMINSTER NATIONAL GOLF COURSE

WESTMINSTER NATIONAL GOLF COURSE CONSERVES WATER & SAVES MONEY WITH FIELDSCOUT TDR350 SOIL MOISTURE METER!

Ryan Kraushofer, certified golf course superintendent at Westminster National Golf Course in Westminster, Maryland, discusses how Spectrum® Technologies FieldScout TDR 350 Soil Moisture Meter has helped improve irrigation methods at his course and improved playability on greens that were performing poorly.

What is the biggest challenge at your golf course?

The biggest challenge at Westminster National is that we have some poorly constructed greens in their own microclimates. Of our greens, 18 are push-up while two of our poorly constructed greens are sand-based surrounded by trees. Additionally, one of the greens is a giant two-tier green with only one walk-on and walk-off area, so managing water on these two greens is completely different than the rest of the course.

How has our product helped improve your turf’s performance or your golf course’s operations?

Owning our TDR 350 has dramatically helped improve the turf condition on our poorly performing greens in the woods. Prior to owning this moisture meter, it was always a guessing game on how much water our greens needed to make it through the day. We knew our 5th green would always need more water, but in the high traffic areas we never know how much. Now, we feel confident as long as we are reading 10-12% in the mornings that the green should have no issues making it through the day, and this is huge since we are a lower budget course with a small staff. Now our resources can be utilized in other areas of the course instead of over applying water.

What types of improvements or changes have you made to your golf course as a result of using the TDR 350?

Our TDR 350 has allowed us to back off on water in certain areas which has helped to improve course playability. We have also started incorporating moisture meters into all of our First Green Field Trips. First Green is a program of the GCSAA Foundation that teaches children about the environment through golf courses. Fifth graders absolutely love taking moisture readings and it’s a great way to get our message across to parents, teachers and students that golf course superintendents truly are doing their part to conserve water.

Check out Ryan using the TDR 350 for the First Green program in this Fox Morning News segment HERE

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MIKE VOTIPKA
SUPERINTENDENT - LAKE PADDEN GOLF COURSE

Lake Padden Golf Course Better Monitors Winter Temperature Extremes with the WatchDog® 3250 and SpecConnect™!

Mike Votipka, golf course superintendent at Lake Padden Golf Course in Bellingham, WA, discusses his experience using Spectrum® Technologies Watchdog® Weather Stations at his golf course.

What is the biggest challenge at your golf course?

The biggest challenge at Lake Padden Golf Couse is navigating the extreme temperatures in the winter and attempting to keep frost from significantly affecting the course during the winter months. We also experience microclimates, so being able to see the variations throughout the course to ensure proper irrigation is essential.

How has our product helped improve your turf’s performance or your golf course’s operations?

We purchased 3 WatchDog Weather Stations, 4 Repeater Pups and 1 Retriever to capture data in all the microclimates on the course. The WatchDog Weather Stations have provided us with better accuracy of moisture levels, wind and frost. This is especially critical October through April when frost is our most concerning issue.

What types of improvements or changes have you made to your golf course as a result of using the WatchDog 3250?

With implementation of the WatchDog Weather Stations, we have been able to irrigate less since we can track moisture levels more accurately saving time and money. We can also better monitor frost and relay tee time delays to golfers more accurately to protect the turf from damage.